---
title: "Changing Jobs in Japan: 40% Got a Raise, 31% Took a Cut"
description: "Japan's 2025 Survey on Employment Trends: 40.8% of job changers earned more than before, 31.0% less, 28.2% got 10% or more. Raises until 45, cuts after 50."
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-10/job-change-pay-change-japan-cover-en-2026-10.png
---

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)

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[日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan)

Japan by the Numbers

In this article

1. [Who was asked, and what](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s1)
2. [Who gets the raise?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s2)
3. [Permanent to permanent is a little better](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s3)
4. [How to use the number at the table](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s4)
5. [What the table cannot show](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s5)

[Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers)

# Changing Jobs in Japan: 40% Got a Raise, 31% Took a Cut

MHLW Survey on Employment Trends 2025

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)6 min read

Contents5

1. [Who was asked, and what](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s1)
2. [Who gets the raise?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s2)
3. [Permanent to permanent is a little better](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s3)
4. [How to use the number at the table](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s4)
5. [What the table cannot show](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/job-change-pay-change-japan#s5)

Four in ten people who changed jobs in Japan in 2025 earned more than at their previous employer. Three in ten earned less. The rest saw no change. Only 28.2% got a raise of 10% or more. If you are hiring in Japan and a candidate tells you a move "always" comes with a 20% bump, the labor ministry's own numbers say otherwise. If you are the candidate, the same numbers tell you when the market is on your side and when it stops being.

## Who was asked, and what

People who started a new job in 2025 at an establishment with five or more regular employees and who had been employed at some point in the previous twelve months. The survey calls them job changers (転職入職者) and estimates 5.06 million of them nationwide. The source is the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Survey on Employment Trends, 2025 results published on 31 August 2026. The new hire fills in the form personally.

The question reads: compared with your immediately previous employer, how did your pay change? Seven options, from a cut of 30% or more, through "no change", to a rise of 30% or more. The form does not say whether "pay" means monthly salary or annual income, and it says nothing about bonuses. That is left to the respondent.

The denominator includes everyone: part-timers moving to another part-time job, people rehired after retirement at 60, contract workers converting to permanent roles. 2.7% did not answer. So 40.8% is the average for every job changer in Japan. It is not a forecast for one 32-year-old engineer. It becomes useful once you split it.

## Who gets the raise?

The young. By age group in 2025, the share whose pay rose and the share whose pay fell:

Age 20 to 24: 55.2% up, 17.5% down. 25 to 29: 49.8% and 23.9%. 30 to 34: 48.6% and 29.0%. 35 to 39: 43.5% and 23.9%. 40 to 44: 44.9% and 27.4%. 45 to 49: 41.1% and 30.1%. Up to this point more people gain than lose.

At 50 it flips. 50 to 54: 29.4% up, 42.0% down. 55 to 59: 25.5% and 38.9%. 60 to 64: 21.1% and 54.3%. 65 and over: 22.2% and 42.3%.

Look at raises of 10% or more and the staircase is even clearer: 44.2% at 20 to 24, 32.8% at 30 to 34, 30.0% at 45 to 49, 18.4% at 50 to 54, 11.0% at 60 to 64.

The job-change raise window runs to about 45. After 50, more movers lose pay than gain

Share of 2025 job changers whose pay rose or fell compared with the previous employer (%), by age group. MHLW Survey on Employment Trends 2025, self-reported, establishments with 5+ regular employees

Age groups where cuts outnumber raisesAge groups where raises outnumber cuts

**Pay rose**

- 20 to 24

  55.2%
- 30 to 34

  48.6%
- 40 to 44

  44.9%
- 45 to 49

  41.1%
- 50 to 54

  29.4%
- 60 to 64

  21.1%

**Pay fell**

- 20 to 24

  17.5%
- 30 to 34

  29.0%
- 40 to 44

  27.4%
- 45 to 49

  30.1%
- 50 to 54

  42.0%
- 60 to 64

  54.3%

Overall, four in ten gain and three in ten lose. Split by age, most movers in their twenties gain and most in their sixties lose.

Figure 1. Among Japan's job changers in 2025, 40.8% earned more than before and 31.0% earned less; at age 20 to 24 it was 55.2% up and 17.5% down, at 45 to 49 41.1% and 30.1%, at 50 to 54 29.4% and 42.0%, and at 60 to 64 21.1% and 54.3%.

I wrote about why what you sell changes after 40 in [Changing Jobs After 40 in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/changing-jobs-after-40?hsLang=en). Here the point is narrower. The market treats a move as a raise until the mid-forties and as a pay cut from 50. That assumption sits underneath every negotiation before anyone discusses ability.

## Permanent to permanent is a little better

Strip out part-timers and look at regular workers moving to regular jobs: 44.5% up, 25.0% unchanged, 29.0% down. 30.5% got 10% or more; 18.7% lost 10% or more. About four points better than the total, and still nearly three in ten took a cut.

The direction is improving. In 2015, 35.6% gained and 33.5% lost, close to even. From 2019 to 2021 losers outnumbered gainers. Then 37.2% up in 2023, 40.5% in 2024, 40.8% in 2025. Raises of 10% or more went from 24.5% in 2022 to 29.4% in 2024, then 28.2% in 2025. Japanese [wages, flat for thirty years](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-wages-since-1945?hsLang=en), have moved in the last few, and job changers are getting part of it. "A move means a raise" is still not true.

## How to use the number at the table

If you are the candidate: ask for what you want, but don't make the reason "everyone gets 20% when they move." There is no such fact, and the interviewer may well have this table. The reasons that hold up are a change of grade, a change in the responsibility you take on, or a market rate for the role that sits above your current pay. Read the offer in [three tracks](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/read-your-offer-in-three-tracks?hsLang=en): grade, allowance, bonus. A person who can say which track the money comes from gets further than one quoting a percentage.

If you are hiring: don't use "only four in ten get a raise" to push the number down. The people you want are the roughly three in ten who already get 10% or more when they move. The average does not describe them. Push with the average and the ones who walk are exactly the ones you were after. Japanese candidates rarely argue in the room. They decline later, which is what [Japan's offer decline rate](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-offer-decline-rate?hsLang=en) is made of.

There is a reverse use. For a candidate over 50 the market default is a cut. A flat offer already looks good from where they stand. You don't need to add money. You do need to say, in words, why this person.

## What the table cannot show

No industry split, no occupation split. The engineering market has probably done better than the average in recent years, but this survey has no occupation breakdown, so I won't claim it. And since "pay" is undefined, someone whose monthly salary rose while the bonus disappeared may tick "up" or "down" depending on mood.

Still, four in ten up and three in ten down is the floor under every conversation. Which side you land on is half decided by age and half by the reasons you bring. People who got 30% on every move back home tend to discover Japan's ruler at the negotiating table. Better to look at it first.

Sources (as of October 2026)

- [Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Survey on Employment Trends 2025, section 3 job changers (table 6 pay change by age, table 7 by employment type), 31 August 2026](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/koyou/doukou/26-2/dl/kekka_gaiyo-03.pdf)
- [MHLW, Survey on Employment Trends 2024, section 3 (time series 2015 to 2024)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/koyou/doukou/25-2/dl/kekka_gaiyo-03.pdf)
- [MHLW, Survey on Employment Trends 2023, section 3 (2022 and 2023 figures)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/koyou/doukou/24-2/dl/kekka_gaiyo-03.pdf)
- [MHLW, Survey on Employment Trends, survey outline (coverage, sample, response rate)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/koyou/doukou/26-2/dl/gaiyo.pdf)
- [MHLW, Survey on Employment Trends 2025 entrant form (pay-change question and options)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/chousahyo/r07-nyuusyoku.pdf)

---

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

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